Playing area at Memorial Stadium will be known as "Kabam Field" for the next 15 years as part of first of its kind deal for the university.

California University announced today that Kabam, the social game developer behind a pair of The Hobbit games, has won the naming rights to the field at the school's Memorial Stadium. Beginning in 2014, the field itself will be known as "Kabam Field" thanks to a 15-year, $18-million deal Kabam and the University agreed to this week.

As part of the arrangement, reported by The New York Times, Kabam's name will be featured on the two 25-year lines, as well as the 50-yard mid-field line. The deal is described as the first of its kind for the university and perhaps the first time a gaming company has paid to put its name on a college field.

Kabam will also establish a scholarship program as part of the deal, and provide donations to Cal's library system, as well as internships, executive exchanges, an "innovation lab," and an interactive gaming space at the stadium itself.

CEO and cofounder of Kabam, Kevin Chou, graduated from Cal, as did two other cofounders. Kabam hired sports advisory firm Premiere Partnerships to broker the deal to obtain the naming rights.

It's not the first time, of course, a company has won naming rights for an athletic field or stadium. In the college space, Wake Forest's BB&T Stadium is named after the local bank, while heating and air conditioning company Carrier has its name on Syracuse's Carrier Dome.

In professional sports, Major League Baseball's Tampa Bay Rays play at Tropicana Field, named after the popular juice company. Meanwhile, the San Francisco Giants' home field is AT&T Park.

Cal's football season ended in November after the team posted a woeful 1-11 record. However, perhaps more relevant to the Kabam deal, nearly all of its games were televised.

Not a big fan of microtransacttions myself, but I have to face reality. This type of story, with a company I've never heard of able to throw $18 Million on a name, tells me means the microtransaction model is truly here to stay and no amount of internet hate comments have the power to stop it. Seriously 18 million! Imagine how much other companies thet use microtransactions are making and put that all together. Good for them actually.. especially in these trying economic times..

The fact that this has been brought up by more than 10 video game news outlets today is proof that this advertisement has worked already.. not to mention the hundreds of millions of people that will see and hear that name and think of that company every time it's uttered or read

Advertising is the most obnoxiously overvalued commodity that there is. Stop destroying arena names. I can't stand it when I see stupid nonsense like the Quicken Loans Arena, KFC Yum! Arena, EnergySolutions Arena... etc. We used to have this awesome arena in Toronto called the SkyDome. How cool of a name is that? Now it's the Rogers Centre... and to make it even worse, they make a statue of the founder of Rogers and put it in front of the arena.